Too little support for farmers hit by late payments

The failure to pay farmers in a timely manner, has been laid bare by the latest Public Accounts Committee inquiry into support for farmers says Committee Member Caroline Flint.

Said Caroline: “The Rural Payments Agency is meant to distribute £1.8billion annually in payments to local farmers. The Basic Payments Scheme represent 80% of that support; yet in 2015, only 38% of farmers had been paid by December of that year. By the end of March 2016, at the financial year end, one in six farmers had still not been paid.

“This was a catalogue of delays, mistakes and mismanagement at the door of the Government, not the EU, letting our farmers down.

“I know from farmers in Yorkshire, that these payments underwrite their businesses. This report makes a number of demands of Government – not least better use of data to make timely payments to farmers.

“I want the Public Accounts Committee to monitor Government progress on this because the current state of play is simply not good enough, and hardworking farmers are being short changed, month after month. It has been simply unacceptable.”